First Electric Railway in Northeast China to Open to Traffic

Xinhua, 9 August 2001

BEIJING, August 9 (Xinhua) -- The first electric railway in Northeast
China, a 550-kilometer-long railway linking Harbin and Shenyang,
capitals of Heilongjiang and Liaoning provinces, was completed
Wednesday and will be open to traffic in mid August, Thursday's
Economic Information Daily reports.

The Harbin-Shenyang railway is a part of the electric railway that
links Harbin and the coastal city of Dalian, a major infrastructure
project to be completed in November this year.

The Harbin-Dalian railway runs 949 kilometers and links 25 major
cities in the three provinces of northeast China, Heilongjiang, Jilin
and Liaoning. Electrification of the railway, which involves a total
investment of some 15 billion yuan (about 1. 81 billion U.S. dollars),
is financed by the Chinese government and German loans. German
technologies, equipment and mode of management have been employed to
electrify the railway.

Sources say the railway is designed to ease the bottleneck in
northeast China and expand transportation capacity there. Once the
railway opens to traffic, it will take less than 10 hours to travel
from Harbin to Dalian by train.